Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report recently wrote an article detailing some potential trade ideas. One of them was a trade that would see the Miami Heat ship Kel’el Ware to the Milwaukee Bucks in a package deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Landing Antetokounmpo would be great for the Heat, but the package Hughes outlined would be huge.
In the trade, the Heat would send Ware, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, first-round picks in 2030 and 2032, and first-round pick swaps in 2027, 2029, and 2031. The deal would give the Heat a real chance to compete in the East, but at quite a cost.
The question is, would that deal be worth it?
Should the Heat trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
First and foremost, trading for Antetokounmpo would be a huge win for any team. He’s one of the best players on the planet and a top-25 player of all-time. With him on the team, the Heat would instantly be a title contender again.
But at what cost? Trading Ware is one thing. He had a solid rookie season and could turn into a great NBA player one day. But would he ever get to the level of Antetokounmpo? Almost definitely not.
Herro is an All-Star and an impressive shot creator. He’s the leader of Miami’s current offensive structure. Wiggins is one of the better 3-and-D role players in the league.
The deal would also include almost all of the Heat’s future draft capital. They would be selling their future for Antetokounmpo, which could be worth it, but it could also come back to bite them.
If the Heat did make this trade for Antetokounmpo, it wouldn’t leave them with much depth. In all likelihood, they would have to roll out a starting lineup that would look something like this: Davion Mitchell, Norman Powell, Nikola Jovic, Antetokounmpo, and Bam Adebayo.
At a glance, that’s a perfectly fine starting lineup. In fact, it may be one of the better starting lineups in the Eastern Conference. The problem would lie with the bench.
Miami’s bench would be left with Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson, and Dru Smith. That’s where things get a bit tricky. That’s not exactly a stacked second unit.
Still, landing Antetokounmpo would be huge. The Heat would have a chance to reshape their roster around him and go from there.
Unfortunately, the Bucks haven’t shown a ton of desire to move Antetokounmpo. Unless he requests a trade, he’s probably not going anywhere.